EXCLUSIVE NPTDONOR RESEARCH National Polling Shows Relief … · 2013. 8. 9. · executive search firms/recruiters TECHNOLOGY GUIDE October 15th Issue / September 23rd Ad Deadline

S P E C I A L R E P O R T

E X C L U S I V E N P T D O N O R R E S E A R C H

If you had $25 and could make

JUST ONE charitable gift

donation with it, which

of the following types

of charities would

you donate to? Non-disaster relief charity47%

Disaster relief charity44%

Don’t know

9%

Household Income $35K - $50k - $75K- $100K -

A NON-disaster relief charity 49% 49% 66% 58%

A disaster relief charity 47% 45% 31% 40%

Don’t know 5% 8% 2% 3%

What type of charity do you support?

Don’t know

do you support?

NON-disaster relief charity

disaster relief charity

What type of charity

AA

AA

3%

$100K -

58%

40%

2% 8% 5%

31% 45% 47%

66% 49% 49%

$75K- $50k - $35K - meHousehold Inco

$100K -

A NON-disaster relief charity 49% 49% 66%

A disaster relief charity 47% 45% 31%

Don’t know 5% 8% 2%

Donation type by education

High Schoolor Less

CollegeIncomplete

CollegeGraduate

Don’t know

High Schoolby education

NON-disaster relief charity

disaster relief charity

Donation type

AA

AA

2%

Graduate

66%

31%

CollegeIncomplete

Collegeor Less

High School

8% 5%

45% 47%

49% 49%

GraduateCollege

A NON-disaster relief

charity you have NOT

always supported 14%

A NON-disaster

relief charity you have


A disaster relief


always supported

16%

A disaster




14%

33%


NON-dAA



NON-disAA

disaster rAA



NON-disaster



NON-disaster relief

disaster relief



disasAA

16%

always supported


disaster rAA


16%

28%


disaster

16%

always supported


disaster relief

12 SEPTEMBER 1, 2013 THE NONPROFIT TIMES www.thenonprofittimes.com

BY PAUL CLOLERY

Amajority of donors given a choice between giv-ing to a non-disaster charity or to disaster re-lief response would not give to disaster relief.And what might be more of a disaster for

some charities, more people reached via cell phonewould give to the non-disaster charity.

By a count of 47 percent to 44 percent, with 9 percentunsure, donors would give to a non-disaster charity ifthey could make only one gift. Of all respondents, 33 per-cent would give to a non-disaster charity to which theyhave always given and 14 percent to a non-disaster charityto which they have never given.

The NonProfit Times contracted with ORC Interna-tional to ask a nationally-projectable sample of 1,005Americans the following question: If you had $25 andcould make just one charitable donation with it, whichof the following types of charities would you donate to?The choices were a non-disaster relief charity or a disas-ter relief charity. Within those distinctions, respondentswere asked if it was an organization they have alwayssupported or if it was an organization they had not al-ways supported.

ORC also noted whether the respondent was reached

by landline or cell phone. In disasters when text-to-giveentices immediate giving, only 47 percent of those whowould give to a disaster charity were reached when acell phone was the primary source of contact.

Disaster charity or not, donor loyalty of staying withwhat they have done previously is seen by a solid majority-- 61 percent to 30 percent with 9 percent unsure.

“The survey indicates that donors do prefer giving toa charity with whom they are already engaged. This sug-gests that efforts to create long-term relationships withour donors are working and donors are getting theright kind of information from charities that have builttrust and loyalty,” said Sr. Georgette Lehmuth, OSF,president and CEO of the National Catholic Develop-ment Conference (NCDC) in Hempstead, N.Y., whichhas many disaster response organizations as members.

And, Americans just might be tiring of disaster asks,she said. “The number of disasters and calls for reliefboth in the U.S. and abroad has grown and there couldbe some disaster relief fatigue. The number of newcharities that pop up overnight as a result of disasters isconfusing to the public as is the fact many of thesegroups were poorly managed, ineffective, and in somecases, a hoax. Some of the big disaster agencies didmake mistakes that eroded trust and this created scepti-cism,” she said.

“There is a real gap between public expectation/un-

derstanding of disaster relief and the reality of a well-planned, effective relief effort. Some of this misunder-standing is caused by media sensationalism. Thedisaster agencies are challenged in terms of educatingthe public and dispelling misconceptions,” she said.

Chip Grizzard, president and CEO of fundraisingagency Grizzard in Atlanta, Ga., said it is important toremember that often what donors say they would doand what they actually do are two very different things.“Most regular charitable donors have a list of causesthey support but in times of disaster make additionalgifts. These are impulse gifts based on the emotionalcoverage provided by the media,” he said.

The polling showed that the more affluent an indi-vidual, the less likely the person is to give to disaster re-lief. Some 66 percent of those earning between $75,000and $100,000 would give to the non-relief charity. Itwas 58 percent of those earning more than $100,000.

“Based on the results, it appears that lower educa-tion and income equates to more of a soft spot for dis-asters, potentially because these are much moredevastating to those under/non-insured with little sav-ings to fall back on,” said Grizzard. “This idea of fragilityis also reflected in the donors age 65+ who skew to-wards disaster.”

Irv Katz, president and CEO of the National HumanServices Assembly in Washington, D.C., said “maybe thoseof higher incomes and more education are more skepticalof disaster relief charities or they are more informed andrecognize that the need is for more than disaster relief,which is what we hear from disaster relief agencies all thetime.” He suggested, “maybe that message is gettingacross to more educated and affluent people.”

On a positive note, Katz said the data show that

around 60 percent across all groups reported they havesupported (an organization), “a nice indicator of theAmerican spirit.”

Jeanean Merkel, vice president of communicationsand marketing for Lutheran Services in America in Balti-more, Md., said that field managers from her organiza-tion report that people give small amounts in theaftermath of disasters, as they believe their gift willmake a real difference to someone who is suffering.What people see on the news makes the situation realto them and they have an impulse to respond.

Sam Sipes, president and CEO of Lutheran ServicesFlorida, in Tampa, wasn’t especially surprised or dis-mayed by the results. “You can see something rightthere in the way the question is phrased,” Sipes said.“They were asked if they would give to an organizationin general.” If they were asked right after a disaster orabout a specific disaster, there might have been quite adifferent response, Sipes said.

“Frankly, most money for disasters gets raised whenthere is a disaster,” Sipes continued. “So, for example,in 2005 if you asked people about Hurricane Katrinaaid, most of the response would have been for Katrina.”

Maj. Ron Busroe, national community relations di-rector and development secretary for the SalvationArmy, said he wasn’t “particularly surprised by the re-sults or particularly troubled by them.” Busroe agreedwith the assessment that when there is a disaster, peoplerespond, but he also said that the survey could be seenas good news for his organization.

Busroe also took issue with the idea of “disaster fa-tigue” or donor fatigue. “I’ve been hearing about disasterfatigue for years,” he said. “I’ve not seen any indicationthat people are susceptible to it. Some disasters catchpeople’s attention, and some don’t. Some disasters pullat people’s heartstrings in ways that others don’t.”

When there is “the ‘CNN effect,’ that is an event beingbroadcast widely, we see a dramatic increase in what I callthe ‘Widow’s Mite,’ or smell donations,” said Kurt Senske,CEO of Lutheran Services of the South, headquartered inAustin, Texas. “After they see it on television we get a lot of

$10, $20 (gifts). They don’t have a lot of money, but theyfeel compelled to help.”

Regarding disaster fatigue, Senske neither acceptednor rejected the idea fully.

“My sense, when trying to recall specifics, is thatwhen two, three or four disasters go boom, boom,boom, you can see a little bit of (fatigue). But in our ex-perience with the West, Texas explosion and two torna-does in close proximity is that we did not see that.”

Senske was speaking of the April explosion of a fer-tilizer plant in West, Texas, and devastating tornadoesin Oklahoma a month later.

Women are more likely (47 percent) to give to reliefand men to non-relief (49 percent). The best regions of

National Polling Shows Relief DonorsStay Loyal, Tiring Of Disasters

Exclusive NPT Research, page 14

•September 1 2013 NPT_Layout 1 8/23/13 2:48 PM Page 12

SEPTEMBER 1, 2013 THE NONPROFIT TIMES www.thenonprofittimes.com 13

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the nation for disaster relief giving are the South (49percent) and West (48 percent). The best region fornon-disaster giving was the Midwest (58 percent) fol-lowed by the Northeast (47 percent).

To which event people would give toggled back andforth with age. In the grouping 55 to 64, some 51 per-cent of respondents would give to the non-disastercharity but in the 65 and older category that numberplummeted to 37 percent. The younger donors pre-ferred disaster relief while those 35-44 preferred non-disaster relief.

For all the data go to http://bit.ly/13Mp6lC The data showed that 50 percent of White, non-His-

panic donors would give to the non-disaster charitywith 8 percent responding that they were unsure howthey would make the gift. The majority of Black, non-Hispanic respondents (54 percent) would give to disas-ter relief as would 48 percent of Hispanic respondents.

“While there were differences among the agegroups, they were more similar than I might have antic-ipated. This seems to support some studies that chil-dren imitate giving patterns of their parents. So,

generations imitate previous generations? I am notsure, since the question posed was presuming a giftwould be made,” said Sr. Georgette.

Whether it was for disaster or non-disaster, fundrais-ing remains a tough sell for some organizations. “For asmall, nonprofit international relief agency, it’s very dif-ficult in these times,” said Richard Walden, presidentand CEO of Los Angeles, Calif.-based Operation USA.The 2012 presidential campaign sucked $6 billion outof the market, he said, and even if 10 percent of thatwent to charity, it was a significant hit to organizationsthat rely on it. “If you’re not a government contractoror faith-based, it’s tough sledding,” said Walden.

Sometimes there’s quite a significant amount ofmoney raised after a disaster but in most cases thereisn’t. In large-scale disasters, like the Haiti earthquakein 2010, Walden said large agencies like American RedCross get the majority of it. Raising money for develop-ment projects in Africa, where there’s endemic poverty,is difficult. “If you don’t get a foundation grant, which ishard to come by, you have to partner with enough peo-ple so they can absorb some of the costs of getting ourstuff over there,” said Walden.

In a typical year, Operation USA’s budget is less than $2million. Walden is trying to move away from in-kind contri-butions because there’s been so much abuse within thesector that the IRS is all over the bigger organizationsabout it. “We prefer shipping medical equipment. It mayhave a lower dollar value but it’s more useful to the peoplewe give it to,” he said.

Except for a Christmas card and a couple of mailingsduring the year, Operation USA doesn’t do much directmail because of the expense. Still, Walden has seen dona-tions fall off markedly because of the economy as well asthe aging of their donors. “People who gave $1,000 be-fore might be giving $500; we can see that, especially atChristmas time,” he said.

“They haven’t gotten over the market tanking in2008,” said Walden, and while the stock market has re-turned to previous levels, people have lost five years ofadvances. “That trauma was very difficult, especially ifthey have no income coming in except Social Securityor investments,” he said. NPT

NPT writers Mark Hrywna, Donald McNamara and

Patrick Sullivan contributed to this story.


BY CLAUDIA SCHAEFER

When Hurricane Katrina wreaked havoc inNew Orleans and ravaged the Gulf Coastin 2005, Twitter was still a few monthsfrom being born and Facebook was still a

crawling infant. There were smartphones but they toowere not yet real mobile devices.

Still, technology helped provide better communica-tions among rescue workers and public safety officialsthrough ad hoc wireless networks, voice-over-Internetprotocol (VoIP)-based phone networks, and solar- andbattery-powered equipment that provided police radiocapabilities.

Much has changed since then. “We learned from Hurricane Katrina and the World

Trade Center disaster that we needed the ability to com-municate between organizations and disciplines,” saidLane Roberts, chief of police in Joplin, Mo. The city wasas prepared as one can be when the tornado hit Joplin in2011. “We had an ACU-1000TM that allowed us to com-municate with other command units and other agenciesthrough one point rather than multiple relay, which en-abled us to be much more efficient,” explained Roberts.The ACU-1000TM, (manufactured by Raytheon) is nei-ther computer nor network dependent.

During a natural disaster, communications systemsare critical to connect affected populations with relieforganizations, government agencies, humanitarian aidworkers, volunteers and donors. Earthquakes, hurri-canes, and snowstorms can disrupt communications atthe moment they are needed most. Electrical powerlines are damaged. Cellular capacities are congested.Mobile network infrastructures are destroyed.

Roberts and other disaster response leaders agreethat technology is transforming disaster communica-tions from data collection to information sharing. Along list of technologies are being used in the UnitedStates and globally during a natural disaster:

Tech Can Help With Relief Efforts– When There is Electricity

Social media gets word out but rumors still fly uncorrected

• Low-cost SMS text messaging, which might be theonly technology available in a developing country;

• Line-of-sight satellite systems as a temporary backupsystem for Wi-Fi;

• Ad hoc wireless networks; • iPads and tablets that collect data in the field;• Crowdsourcing; • Twitter, Skype, and social media enhanced with mo-

bile technologies; and,• Open source software for information collection, vi-

sualization and interactive mapping, such asUshahidi, originally built by a community of digitalvolunteers for Kenyans to report and map incidentsof violence they saw via SMS, email or the web via mo-bile. All these technologies enable people to betterassess conditions and target relief in real-time. “We use the full array of technologies depending on

the country and its needs,” said William A. Brindley,CEO and executive director of NetHope, a collabora-tion of international non governmental organizations(NGOs) headquartered in Fairfax, Va. NetHope brings

information and communications technology to the de-veloping world where response to natural and man-made disasters is made more difficult due to the lack ofinfrastructure and challenging environments.

During the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, NetHope workedwith its NGO member organizations and major technologypartners to create a response center at a member organiza-tion’s site in Port-au-Prince that still had communicationscapabilities. They extended Haiti’s Wi-Fi network, settingup line-of-sight satellite dishes from rooftop to rooftop toget a satellite feed that extended Haiti’s Wi-Fi network.Satellite deployment, satellite phones and network reliefkits that fit into a backpack have been used for years but areexpensive so it’s necessary to quickly get on a more ongo-ing system, said Brindley.

NetHope collaborated in 2011 with the United Na-tions and 1,000 skilled volunteers from more than 70countries with dedicated experience in online crisismapping to undertake a mapping of social media, newsreports and official situation reports from within Libya.

“All this information was crowdsourced from all overthe world,” said Brindley. “Information poured in andwas organized visually by aggregating data on a map inreal-time. It was truly revolutionary,” he said.

NetHope last year launched its Open HumanitarianInitiative (OHI), a data-driven development emergencyresponse project focused on crowdsourcing, open dataand big data to put the platforms and tools in place be-fore a disaster strikes. “When a disaster happens, thedata will come in and we will know where the hot spotsare, where the networks are down, and where the peo-ple are misplaced,” said Brindley.

Crowdsourcing can provide more effective aid andreal-time assessment of needs, but there are challengeswith bi-directional communication, skewed representa-tion, languages and literacy and analysis of data. Socialmedia, an essential component of crowdsourcing, has


EXCLUSIVE NPT RESEARCHContinued from page 12

Continued on page 15

Tent city in HaitiUN Photo / Marco Dormino


SEPTEMBER 1, 2013 THE NONPROFIT TIMES www.thenonprofittimes.com 15

been criticized for accuracy issues. “In some ways, social media has been very helpful

during disasters. For example, after Hurricane Sandyhit, social media helped generate and coordinate volun-teers. It told the outside world what kind of supplieswere needed and also the unmet needs. But socialmedia also played a role in spreading rumors. The ru-mors weren’t true about FEMA – funds were available, ”said Robert Ottenhoff, CEO of the Center for DisasterPhilanthropy in Washington, D.C.

Brindley dismissed the criticism, asserting that socialmedia is “actually more accurate, and is self-correctingby digital volunteers.”

Ottenhoff countered that while “social media is self-correcting -- eventually -- it’s not at first. And, that’s theproblem.”

For Joplin’s police department, social media “was arevelation to us,” said Roberts, who acknowledged thatthe department was “not a big fan of social media.”During the tornado, it was “an effective way to dissemi-nate and gain information,” he said.

“We now have a Facebook page to share informa-tion,” said Roberts, who explained that it emerged dur-ing the response to the tornado. “Having experiencedthe benefits of it, we’ve retained it. As a public entity, wehave fairly strict policies behind it -- not just concerningprivacy issues, but about things that might be said thatmight not be acceptable for public employees.”

The American Red Cross (ARC) last year launchedearthquake, tornado, hurricane and wildfire mobile appli-cations that are available on iPhone and Android devicesfrom the iTunes or Google Play app stores. The applica-

tions use open government data to help people preparefor, be alerted to, and recover from natural disasters.

“We noticed that during a disaster, people were com-ing to our website for information. With the proliferationof apps and smartphone penetration at more than 50 per-cent, we decided to provide the information we teach inclasses and post on our website to be accessible via peo-ple’s handheld devices,” said Dominick Tolli, vice presi-dent of product management at the American Red Crossin Washington, D.C. “Once downloaded, people get just-in-time information when and where they need it.”

The apps have improved disaster preparedness, saidTolli. User feedback and stories posted in the Apple appstore talk about how ARC’s disaster apps have helpedpeople get to safety, or saved their life or their neigh-

bor’s life. Since the apps came out, ARC has sent more than 25

million alerts. People have accessed 130 mobile pagesbefore, during and after storms. “We can see when theapp is downloaded, and when downloads spike. Thereare 3.5 million people who have our disaster apps.They’re leaders in their immediate community. Thepeople who’ve downloaded our apps are helping theirneighbors. There’s a multiplier effect,” said Tolli.

When telecommunication infrastructures go down,mobile infrastructures come back more quickly thanothers, said Tolli, who acknowledged there are stillproblems that affect the usefulness of the mobile apps.

“We do have issues around the accuracy and timeli-ness of information we get from some governmentagencies but some are terrific,” said Tolli.

In a World Economic Forum Blog post titled “Howopen data can save lives,” Brindley paraphrased Englishpoet Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient

Mariner to point out the difficulty in finding ways tocombine new and traditional data sources through thesmarter use of technology. “Data, data everywhere, norany bit makes sense,” he wrote.

While open data can enhance transparency, assertedBrindley, there are problems: the lack of data standards,APIs and data analysis, as well as openness of data fromthe United Nations and other NGOs.

Big data has its opportunities, such as real-time loca-tion data, demographic analysis and trends and earlywarning, but it has its challenges too, from privacy andsecurity issues to information overload and the lack ofcapacity to analyze, explained Brindley.

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The American Red Cross launched earthquake, tornado, hurricaneand wildfire mobile applications that are available on iPhone andAndroid devices from the iTunes or Google Play app stores.

Continued on page 16

Continued from page 14



“Technology is not a panacea,” agreedWilliam McNulty, vice president and co-founder of Team Rubicon (TR), a non-profit in El Segundo, Calif., which unitesthe skills and experiences of military vet-erans with first responders to rapidly de-ploy emer gency response teams.Interoperability between platforms is oneof Team Rubicon’s main challenges inusing various technologies to improve theorganization’s effectiveness indisaster response.

TR’s initial mission waslaunched three days after theJanuary 2010 earthquake thatdevastated Port-au-Prince, Haiti.“From Haiti up until HurricaneSandy, we were using pencil and paper tomanage our workflow. It was a very anti-quated way to manage a disaster re-sponse. We couldn’t scale. During Haitiwe deployed 60 individuals over 18 days.We could manage only so many volun-teers and teams,” recalled McNulty, whosaid the organization accelerated the useof technology platforms just days afterHurricane Sandy hit.

Using a suite of software applicationsfor integrating, visualizing and analyzingdata on a mobile platform, TR was ableto deploy more than 350 military veter-ans who managed more than 10,000

OCTOBER2-5 The Association For HealthcarePhilanthropy will hold its annualinternational conference at the TorontoSheraton, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.Info: www.ahp.org

12-17 The Direct Marketing Association(DMA) will hold its annual exposition atMcCormick Place West in Chicago, Ill.Info: http://dma13.org

14-18 The Grantsmanship TrainingProgram, sponsored by the Grants -manship Center in Los Angeles, Calif.,will be held in St. Paul, Minn., atLutheran Social Services of Minnesota. Info: www.tgci.com

15-18 The International FundraisingCongress will hold its annual conferenceat The NH Leeuwenhorst hotel inNoordwijkerhout, the Netherlands.Info: www.resource-alliance.org

20-22 The Nonprofit HR Conference,sponsored by nonprofitHR, will beheld at the Gaylord National Hoteland Conference Center, NationalHarbor, Md.Info: www.nonprofithr.com

21-25 Competing for Federal Grants,sponsored by the GrantsmanshipCenter in Los Angeles, Calif., will beheld in Mesa, Ariz., at the City of Mesa. Info: www.tgci.com


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12-15 The National Catholic DevelopmentConference (NCDC) will hold its annualconference in Grapevine, Texas, nearDallas.Info: www.ncdc.org

16-20 Competing for Federal Grantssponsored by the Grantsmanship Centerin Los Angeles, Calif., will be held in LosAngeles at The Grantsmanship Center. Info: www.tgci.com

22-25 The Council on Foundationswill hold its annual Fall Conferencefor Community Foundations at theManchester Grand Hyatt San Diegohotel in San Diego, Calif.Info: www.cof.org

24-25 Essential Grant Skills sponsoredby the Grantsmanship Center in LosAngeles, Calif., will be held inWilliamsburg, Va. at the WilliamsburgRegional Library. Info: www.tgci.com

29-OCT. 2 Blackbaud will hold BBCON2013, its annual conference for nonprofits,at the Gaylord National Resort and Con-vention Center, National Harbor, Md.Info: www.bbconference.com

29-OCT. 1 Independent Sector will holdits annual conference at the New YorkHilton in New York City.Info: www.independentsector.org

To get your event added to the calendar, email it at least eight weeks before the event to:

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2013 INDEPENDENT SECTOR NATIONAL CONFERENCE

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Geoffrey Canada

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the center of the storm

civilian volunteers to help with Hurri-cane Sandy relief.

TR also uses technology to manage itsvolunteers and donors, track progress onresponse sites, map workflows, and scaleits response to make it more efficient. Onthe ground, the organizations partnerswith for-profits and nonprofits that do-nate VSATs (very small aperture terminalsto provide two-way satellite ground sta-tions) to operate in the cloud when ter-

restrial systems are down. Everything TR uses -- radios

and repeaters, VSATs, and appli-cations downloaded on smallmobile devices -- requires elec-tricity, said McNulty. “So, we usesolar-powered solutions to en-

sure we always have power, and that we’renever operating in the dark.”

Technology is slowly transforming dis-aster philanthropy, too, said Ottenhoff.“Coming out of the Katrina experience, alot of donors didn’t know what to do,who to give to and what the needs were.Donors today want to communicate withpeople who are working in the field,with people who are actually on theground where the disaster is happen-ing,” said Ottenhoff. “Technology is al-lowing donors to do that, which ischanging the connection volunteers havewith nonprofit relief organizations.” NPT

BillBrindley


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EXCLUSIVE NPTDONOR RESEARCH National Polling Shows Relief … · 2013. 8. 9. · executive search firms/recruiters TECHNOLOGY GUIDE October 15th Issue / September 23rd Ad Deadline